Top 100 best anime

Unlike the previous list, this list is unashamedly a quality list. Although values are to some extent subjective, the intent of the list is to rank series with regard to how they conform to human values, taking into consideration that some values are better (more consistent with others, if you prefer) or more important.

In terms of what I consider to be valued, I highly rate the peak of an anime — what it’s like at its best. The power law isn’t just real between anime, but within the anime themselves. Flaws are overrated, and I generally ignore them with the exception of ones that hamper the viewing experience or reduce a work to something that is worse than the sum of its parts. Berserk’s mediocre animation and fight scenes, for example, are a major flaw due to being an action series.

These series are rated in the abstract, not in terms of my personal taste. But if an anime conforms to my personal tastes, that gives it credibility that can’t be given to others; I can acknowledge that something like Mushishi is highly rated and has some good qualities, but I can’t really be sure of the extent to which its clout is a function of signalling or other non-quality related factors because I don’t vibe with it.

1. Death Note

Basically everything about this anime is top tier. The directing, character designs, soundtrack, and content are all in contention for best within the whole medium. It was an unforgettable work with unforgettable moments: the potato chip, L revealing himself, and the foot washing.

It did drop off towards the end, though the extent to which it did is exaggerated; it went from a 10/10 to an 8/10, and the first part of the series can be enjoyed independently of the second.

2. Evangelion

Like Death Note, it exceeds in multiple ways: it’s well directed, the soundtrack is a banger, and people find the themes of self-actualization and overcoming to be relatable. Yet its status is much more controversial in comparison to a universal favourite like death note.

These critics dislike Evangelion for four main reasons: Shinji is whiney, Rei is just a doll, the ending didn’t make sense, it’s pretentious, or they found it boring.

Most of these criticisms aren’t valid, and largely stem from preferences:

• Shinji isn’t whiney or weak, just introverted and unconfident. Most people would react similarly to the struggles that he faced and people who think otherwise are delulu. And even if he was, it would not be a negative — there is a place in the world for anti-heroes and they are a relative taste, something that some people enjoy and others do not.

• Rei being a doll is the thematic purpose of her character and part of the commentary on otaku culture.

• The ending of the original series was kind of weird and abstract, but it did thematically end Shinji’s character arc, which was the main focus of the show. The movie also presents an alternative version of the ending which is more concrete and fulfilling.

• Evangelion is a little pretentious: the Christian symbolism is indeed there just to look cool, but under the surface there is no pretense of those visuals having any meaning, so I don’t think it qualifies. It does tryhard to be deep, but to its credit it did accomplish its goal.

• Evangelion being boring is a subjective experience that varies based on psychological differences (e.g. need for arousal) and mechanistic ones (e.g. attachments to certain characters). I’m not necessarily saying it’s an invalid complaint, just that it is an experience that is a product of relative tastes and not absolute ones. There was a period after Asuka was introduced and before they ditched the Monster of the Week format that the show started to get a little repetitive, but I think that this complaint largely stems from people not becoming attached to the characters.

Evangelion is definitely not a series for everybody, but it has the distinguishment of having a 30 year old cult that no other anime can rival. The people who really like Evangelion really like it. You can’t fake that.

3. Steins;Gate

Among the anime community, this series is considered to be one of the greatest, but is more controversial among the elitist anime community, who criticize its slow start, retconning their time travel mechanics, and the 2 dimensional side characters.

Unlike in the case of Evangelion, I think that most of these criticisms are valid. The start is slow; people who don’t get quickly attached to the characters are going to find episodes 5-12 a little dull. They did retcon the time travel stuff at the end. The side characters (particularly Daru, Mayuri, and to a lesser extent Kurisu) are indeed two dimensional, but Okabe as a main character was so good that basically all of these issues are not that apparent when most people watch the anime.

4. Fullmetal Alchemist (both 2003 and B)

The complete experience: character designs, animation, art, soundtrack, characters, main story, fight scenes, and basically every single detail you can name are all at least A tier. Only the ending of Brotherhood, which was rather mediocre, stands out as a fault.

Overall, it “only” ranks 4th because I think that the three above it had higher peaks. There’s a few kino scenes like Mustang burning certain characters to a crisp or Ed/Winry’s conversation on the train, but those are not as peak as something like EoE’s ending or even Okabe and Kurisu’s playful banter.

5. Berserk

It’s fantastic. Everybody knows it. Unfortunately, its animation is undewhelming; normally I would ignore something like that, but in a dark fantasy action series, it is rather hard to ignore.

6. Code Geass

Funny enough, I found what people considered to be faults of the anime (e.g. the plot going wild in R2 and the filler episodes) to be positives; I assume that the fillers were annoying while it was broadcasting, but on their own they are funny and add to the experience.

It also has the best ending in all anime. The only ones that even come close are the Steins;Gate, Shinsekai Yori, Cowboy Bebop, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Gurren Lagann, and School Days.

7. Shinsekai Yori

Dystopian fiction is oversaturated and like 80% of stories rip off either V for Vendetta or 1984. Shinsekai Yori, on the other hand, creates a more unnerving and realistic dystopia where society has to be structured in a way that prevents people from doing the equivalent of a school shooting with magical powers. You could call it a “George Mason Approved” anime in the sense that the dystopia is powered by social games and the education system.

The catch: the production sucks — the directing in particular was awful to the point that it appeared like the camera angles were literally random. The character designs are bland and samey. If you gave this story a Death Note-tier production or even a normal industry-standard one it would be the undisputed GOAT of anime.

8. Tatami Galaxy

It’s only available with subtitles for English viewers, people speak really fast, and it has this unique artsy look to it. As a consequence, it has a reputation as an “intellectual” or “high class” anime. As a result, pretentious people are really into it. The anime itself is far from pretentious and the reviewers who claim that it is don’t know what they are talking about.

The main selling point, in my opinion, is that Tatami Galaxy is just funny. Most anime are really bad at being funny, but this one is just built different. Some people consider it to be one of the greatest ever, but I think it falls short due to being too repetitive and unmemorable. Out of all of the anime in the top 20, I’m sad to say that this left the weakest lasting impression out of all of them.

9. Avatar the Last Airbender

Like Fullmetal Alchemist, I would consider it a complete experience where there are not many areas of the show that can be picked at for being lacking, besides perhaps the ending and the shipping choices.

10. Welcome to the NHK!

This is an anime aimed at otaku or people who are really into culture; it tells the story of a 23 year old NEET who meets a 17 year old missionary girl who tries to help him escape his misery. It’s funny and has a fitting ending.

11. Cowboy Bebop

Overrated. It has some of the best peaks in all of anime, but most of the show is either mediocre or boring, largely but not completely a function of its episodic structure.

12. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

It’s a classic, and for good reason. It’s aesthetically pleasing on multiple levels and the plot is complex and entertaining. But it seems to only be a favourite among older or more normal people who are not that into culture; it’s rare to see somebody with 200+ shows watched who’s favourite anime is Ghost in the Shell.

13. Planetes

A workplace drama about space janitors. Starts off as a funny garbage pile of the week comedy that evolves into something more serious — personally I preferred the 2nd part of the series. A bit libtarded, but by modern standards it is not woke.

14. Great Teacher Onizuka

It starts out great — extremely funny and reminded me of my adolescence: lots of edgy jokes and inappropriate close relationships between teachers and students. But, like all comedies, it falls off. This left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth as I felt compelled to complete it, but the beginning of the anime stands on its own feet.

15. Fate/Zero

It’s the hunger games of the anime world. Predictably, it’s exciting, but these series are very hard to write and as a consequence there are mistakes.

This difficulty stems from there being tradeoffs of showing different types of content. In Fate/Zero, in the first season the show largely consisted of characters talking to each other about their motivations and major characters fighting each other and cheating death with plot armor. The former could get a bit boring, and the latter could get a little ridiculous. The alternatives, however, were:

1. Showing more fight scenes of less important characters who killed each other eariler in the show, which wouldn’t contain plot armor, but wouldn’t feel as hype as scenes.

2. Making the series shorter and cutting some of the dialogue and fights that involved the major characters, which would have made the 2nd season, where major deaths actually happen, less impactful.

Neither of these options are appealing, and in my opinion, the producers chose the middle of three evils; I think they should have focused more on the fights or dialogue that involved the characters who died first.

16. FLCL: fun and cute.

17. Hunter x Hunter: chimera ant arc was way too slow. Otherwise top content.

18. Texhnolyze: a personal favourite of mine, but it’s niche.

19. Ergo Proxy: another personal favourite. It’s pretentious and hamfisted, but entertaining and vibed out.

20. Legend of the Galactic Heroes: I respect it in terms of quality, but it’s niche and not for me.

21. Ouran HS Host Club

22. Gurren Lagann

23. Blue Gender: the OG Attack on Titan.

24. Nana: both funny and serious — something most anime can’t pull off.

25. Monster: a bit slow for my tastes, hard to tell how universal this experience is, but others report this as well, so I’m inclined to think that it’s more common than people admit.

26. Samurai Champloo: entertaining but not peak.

27. Aggretsuko: Zootopia and The Office have a child.

28. Baccano!

29. Kaiba

30. Monogatari Series: started out well with Bake and slowly dropped off.

31. School Days

32. JoJo P2

33. Serial Experiments Lain

34. Darker than Black: cool

35. Mushoku Tensei: best anime airing right now.

36. One Piece

37. JoJo P4

38. Vinland Saga

39. Made in Abyss

40. Madoka Magica

41. Mobile Suit Gundam

42. Soul Eater

43. Mawaru Penguindrum

44. Your Name

45. RWBY: started out well and slowly dropped off.

46. Ranma ½

47. JoJo P1

48. Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

49. Revolutionary Girl Utena

50. Fate/Stay Night

51. Attack on Titan: started out fine, got good, and then dropped hard at the end.

52. Angel’s Egg

53. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

54. Trigun

55. Parasyte

56. Zetsuen no Tempest

57. Mushishi

58. Hellsing

59. Gankutsuo: maybe watched this at the wrong time, but I thought it was mid.

60. Terror in Resonance

61. Re:Zero

62. March Comes in Like a Lion

63. Spy × Family

64. Naruto

65. Death Parade

66. Arcane

67. Haibane Renmei

68. Promised Neverland

69. Kaiji

70. Tokyo Ghoul

71. Gintama

72. Kino no Tabi

73. Kill la Kill

74. Eden of the East

75. Yuri on Ice!

Films:

1. The End of Evangelion

2. Perfect Blue

3. Princess Mononoke

4. Spirited Away

5. Paprika

6. Ghost in the Shell (film)

7. Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heavens Door

8. Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

9. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

10. Millennium Actress

11. Vampire Hunter D

12. 5 Centimeters per Second

13. The Garden of Sinners V

14. Akira

15. Made in Abyss III

16. Your name

17. A silent voice

18. Howl’s Moving Castle

19. Ninja Scroll

20. Night is Short, Walk on Girl

21. The Garden of Sinners: Future Gospel

22. The Garden of Sinners III

23. Tokyo Godfathers

24. Wicked City

25. Garden of Words

As is the case with the must watch list, I admit that I have not watched that much anime — only 230 — most anime bloggers/youtubers have watched 300+. I also avoid certain genres (e.g. sports, space operas, and slice of life) because I find them boring. There would be little purpose to watching them since I would not be able to reach the same cognitive state that the people who (apparently) enjoy these anime do.

That said, these are the anime I have not watched (or watched sparingly) that I think could potentially be on the list:

1. Yu Yu Hakusho

2. Ping Pong Animation

3. Usagi Drop

4. Fullmetal Panic

5. Katanagatari

6. KON!

7. Hajime no Ippo

8. Ashita no Joe

9. Nadia

10. Haikyuu

11. Battleship Yamato

12. Macross

13. Kare Kano

14. Frieren

15. In This Corner of the World

16. FREE!

17. Toradora!

18. Violet Evergarden

19. Lucky Star

20. Ghost Hunt

21. Mononoke

22. Scientific Railgun

23. Konosuba

24. Tiger & Bunny

25. Golden Kamuy

26. Fruits Basket

27. Angel Beats!

28. Eve no Jikan

29. To Your Eternity

In the meantime, I may as well post my top 25 favourite anime independent of quality assessment:

1. Evangelion

2. Texhnolyze

3. Steins;Gate

4. Shinsekai Yori

5. Death Note

6. Spirited Away

7. Fullmetal Alchemist

8. Princess Mononoke

9. Code Geass

10. Berserk

11. Perfect Blue

12. Blue Gender

13. Avatar the Last Airbender

14. Welcome to the NHK

15. Ergo Proxy

16. RWBY

17. Darker than Black

18. Cowboy Bebop

19. Nana

20. Ouran HS Host Club

21. Tatami Galaxy

22. Planetes

23. Hunter X Hunter

24. Soul Eater

25. Fate/Zero

As in the case with the must watch list, I’ll make a 2nd edition of this list by the end of the next year, with more entries, less mistakes (e.g. your name in the series category), and certain entries in different positions (e.g. FLCL lower, Wicked City higher).